Marvel would have been crazy to forgo a relaunch of the characters featured in this summer’s smash hit The Avengers, and sure enough, Iron Man, Thor, The Hulk, and Captain America are all getting new comics starting this month. The first of the batch to make it through is Iron Man and the influence of the film series is very clearly seen. Writer Kieron Gillen does a great job of towing the line between pre-established comic continuity and hints of the film series, which is good for both new and old readers. The respect for the material is clearly here and that’s a great place to start with a character that is so revered now, like Iron Man.

This is a solid debut issue. The story unfolds in a way that kept me interested, but the drawback is that sometimes the exposition took a little longer than I would want it to. Not that I expect this series to be lacking in terms of action sequences at all, but getting to them in the first issue almost takes too long for what little we actually get. But don’t confuse ‘elongated’ with ‘boring’ because it’s there just not much of it. Given that this issue is doing a great deal of set up and juggling to prep the reader for the upcoming journey it is quite remarkable in its execution.

Even if you think the story leaves a little to be desired, the really great thing about this comic is the artwork. With Greg Land on pencils, Jay Leisten as inker and Guru eFX on colors, they’ve got the perfect team assembled for this. The sequences of Iron Man flying through the air are gorgeous and even the scene of him continuously flirting with a woman in a bar looks fantastic. Though the primary action scene is short lived, it looks great, and Tony’s new armor might be one of my favorite parts about this series.

While not the most mind blowing of first issues, it does bring the character to a point that all readers can enjoy. Gillen clearly has a vision for the future of Iron Man and though it treads familiar territory, it shows a lot of promise.